After early gains in recovering from a traumatic brain injury in April, Texas litigator Steve Susman, still in a rehab facility, has contracted the COVID-19 virus, his wife announced yesterday.
Just last week Susman underwent surgery to drain fluid from his brain, after his doctors determined that likely was the cause for recent regression in his recovery, Ellen Susman, his wife, wrote last week on his page at CaringBridge.com. A surgically installed shunt apparently was successful, as Ellen observed last week when he came out of post-operative care that he was “much more awake and responsive.”
Susman, 79, founder of Houston’s Susman Godfrey, was injured in a freak bicycle crash on April 22, when the front wheel of his bike caught and locked in an expansion seam in a section of concrete roadway. After more than a week in a coma and continued hospitalization at Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center in Houston, he was moved three weeks later to Houston’s renowned Memorial Herman – TIRR rehabilitation center.
Family members initially visited with Susman via Zoom because of precautions concerning COVID-19, then beginning June 5 they were permitted to make in-person visits. In rehab he had progressed from responding with the movement of a leg or arm to spoken words, to then speaking in monosyllabic words, as well as significant success at singing his favorite songs.
Then in mid-June he began to regress, which led to getting the shunt.
“As the marathon continues, we have hit a new nadir,” Ellen Susman wrote yesterday. She noted that it is uncertain where he contracted the virus – Steve had been moved from TIRR to return to the nearby Memorial Hermann Hospital for the shunt surgery. He was visited there by his daughter Stacy Susman Kuhn, and then moved back to TIRR. He also has been diagnosed with underlying pneumonia.
“We are heartsick that our valiant warrior has yet another battle,” Ellen wrote, noting that chances are slim that either she or Stacey has the virus, but that both are quarantining and will be tested for COVID-19 on Saturday.